[1] His father, Vladimir Gašparović, emigrated to Czechoslovakia from Rijeka in modern-day Croatia at the end of World War I and was a teacher at a secondary school in Bratislava, and at one point its Headmaster.

After the Velvet Revolution and the subsequent fall of the Communist regime, Gašparovič was chosen by the newly elected democratic president Václav Havel to become the country's federal Prosecutor-General.

When a scandal erupted over the discovery of microphones in the U.S. Consulate in November 1992, Gašparovič was asked by Mečiar to head a commission to investigate the background of the affair, but the results were inconclusive.

Later that year, when Mečiar's government attempted to close down the opposition-led Trnava University, Gašparovič sided with the Prime Minister, echoing his argument that its opening was "illegal."

The period of the HZDS rule was among other things marked by persistent animosity between the HZDS-led government and the country's President Michal Kováč, a vocal opponent of Mečiar.

The conflict had gotten to the point where the Slovak Secret Service SIS was alleged to have kidnapped the president's son, Michal Jr., plying him with alcohol, and dropping him in front of a police station in Hainburg in Austria, a country where he was wanted on suspicion of financial fraud.

Gašparovič along with the other members immediately (on 12 July) founded a new party, the Hnutie za demokraciu (HZD) Movement for Democracy, a name bearing a close resemblance to his former HZDS.

[citation needed] However, to date he has remained unapologetic about his role in the Mečiar's regime, which is generally perceived to have set back Slovakia's post-communist political and economic progress and development.

In a 23 August 2011 statement, Gašparovič opposed erecting a sculpture in memory of controversial Hungarian minority politician János Esterházy in Kosice, saying that the one-time deputy had been a follower of Hitler and fascism.